Idlib receives first batch of vaccines
Bab al-Hawa, Syria - A first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrived on Wednesday in war-torn northwestern Syria, an AFP correspondent said, where millions live in dire humanitarian conditions.
The 53,800 AstraZeneca doses were dispatched to the rebel-dominated region as part of the Covax programme, which aims to ensure equitable access to COVID vaccinations.
Around noon, a truck carrying the vaccines crossed the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Turkey and Idlib, an AFP correspondent said. The vaccines were then unloaded and placed in a cold storage facility.
“Today, we received the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines,” said Abdul Hamid al Hussein of the Physicians Across Continents group which accompanied the shipment into Syria.
The delivery is the first to Syria as part of the Covax programme, which has already sent vaccine doses to more than 100 countries and territories worldwide.
The vaccine doses are intended for the extended northwestern Syrian region, which includes extremist-dominated parts of Idlib.
Mahmoud Daher, a senior official with the World Health Organization (WHO) said the UN is ready to administer jabs to the most vulnerable people.
“Once the vaccines arrive, we are prepared to start vaccination to priority groups through our implementing partners,” he told AFP before the vaccines crossed into Idlib. Covax is jointly led by the public-private alliance Gavi, the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
The first categories of people to be vaccinated in the coming days in the Idlib region will be medical personnel involved in the battle against the pandemic and first aid responders.
The next group will be those above the age of 60, followed by people from younger age groups with chronic diseases, said Daher, who is based in the Turkish city of Gaziantep.
Much of the Idlib enclave is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al Sham, an extremist group that includes ex-members of Syria’s former Al Qaeda franchise.